Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Topic Review (Newest First)

06-17-2013 04:32 PM

DefStatic

Sorry, I have not had a chance to test my tap water. I do not think there is a problem there though, as I do not have a problem with my nano.

Here is a random question. When reading the results in the test tube, do I hold it up to the light and compare with the light going through the tube? Or hold it up to the card, blocking the light from coming through.

I did a 50% water change last night and tested after. With the tube held up to the light, the result looks like 20 to 40 ppm. With the tube held up to the card so light does not pass through, it looks like 80 ppm.

As for cleaning it out... I did something like that when i had a brown algae out break. I took every plant out and cleaned them, and thoughtfully scrubbed everything. I also added about 20 plants, and 4 Otos. Never had that problem again.

Right now I am dealing with what looks like green hair algae. Its on my driftwood and any plant or object that gets 3 to 4 inches from the surface.

06-17-2013 03:22 AM

Diana

The 2-part algae attack posted by Ham Toast is a good way to go.
But you cannot do only half the job.

Take care of the problem that caused the algae, and physically remove the algae.
With the cause removed the remnants of algae will not be able to stage a come back.

The large and frequent water changes are an important part of the solution. Whatever went wrong, wherever the nutrients came from they need to be removed. Small, infrequent water changes are not going to put a dent in the accumulating nutrients.

06-16-2013 09:11 PM

HamToast

I had a similar issue for a good two months. Green algae covered everything and I was ripping my hair out over it. I finally decided to just invest some serious effort and fight the algae problem full force.

What worked for me was to do a big clean of the tank, taking everything out that was removable and scrubbing algae off those object. I also scraped the glass and rinsed the filter elements in tank water (to preserve the good bacterias).

While doing this I was removing tank water and had it down to about 60% of normal water level. I filled it up and then did a 50% water change. So in total it was about a 65% tank water change, coupled with heavy cleaning.

My fish all took to the stresses just fine and I proceeded with phase two. Over the next week I did a DAILY 30% water change and stopped fertilization. After the first week I continued the daily water changes but dropped the amount to only 10%. After all that was done my nitrates reached a stable 5-10 ppm.

Also make sure your nitrate test is calibrated. A quick search on the forums should get you a pretty good ho-to thread on test kit calibration.

Good luck!

06-16-2013 05:44 AM

devilduck

Quote:

Originally Posted by crice8

Want to send me a handful or two to suck down my nitrates?

Sure for $6 shipping I can send a good sized bunch. Send me a pm.

You will probably also need to increase co2 to combat algae.

06-16-2013 05:02 AM

Zorfox

What was the result your tap water? What were the nitrate results checking them against a known level as I mentioned previously? Eliminate the obvious and simple solutions first.

06-16-2013 03:19 AM

Diana

Keep up the water changes until the fertilizer has finished adding nitrate to the water. Lots of water changes.

Having some plants to remove it is good, too, but if there is a light issue, then the plants may not grow fast enough to be very good at removing the nitrate. Better lights are good.

When you use slow release fertilizer that is supposed to be buried, press each one down all the way to the bottom of the tank, and make sure it stays there when you remove your finger or whatever you are using to push it down.

lullafishi, NO3 level makes no difference to the bacteria you are trying to grow when you are cycling a tank. Keep the ammonia and nitrite under 5 ppm, but the nitrate can get WAY high, and not be an issue.

06-16-2013 01:31 AM

DefStatic

Quote:

Originally Posted by crice8

Want to send me a handful or two to suck down my nitrates?

I have been thinking of getting soem dwarf water lettuce anyways. I have just always been afraid of blocking light. The light at the outside edges of my tank is weak as it is.

So...

Reduce Feeding (which has already been done, I might even make it every 3 days)
More or larger water changes (partially done, going to attempt a 50% change in the next few days)
Add some floating plants (making a deal on some now)

Sound like a good plan?

The algae growth is bothering me as well, which is what alerted me to a nitrate problem in the first place.

06-15-2013 11:45 PM

crice8

Quote:

Originally Posted by devilduck

You'll either wait it out or completely change out your substrate. Waiting it out will take months...depending on the number of tabs you placed in the tank. It's been 3 months for me. You'll need to do larger weekly or bi-weekly water changes. I'm considering buy an additional HOB filter and rotating packs of Nitra-zorb and Purigen to help out.

I guess on the upside my frogbit, which struggled to grow in my tanks before this is now thriving. I'm tossing away handfuls a day.

Want to send me a handful or two to suck down my nitrates?

06-15-2013 11:39 PM

devilduck

You'll either wait it out or completely change out your substrate. Waiting it out will take months...depending on the number of tabs you placed in the tank. It's been 3 months for me. You'll need to do larger weekly or bi-weekly water changes. I'm considering buy an additional HOB filter and rotating packs of Nitra-zorb and Purigen to help out.

I guess on the upside my frogbit, which struggled to grow in my tanks before this is now thriving. I'm tossing away handfuls a day.

06-15-2013 10:47 PM

DefStatic

The last time I did add root tabs (Ozmocote Plus ones I got on here) I did not put them deep enough, and some of them opened near the surface. I thought I had pushed them down far enough and was wrong on a few of them. I removed most of the pieces that came to the surface, or buried them.

So perhaps this is the source of my problem. That was a month ago. I then moved some plants around, and probably disturbed them more.

Should I be concerned about this? Or do I just have to wait it out, doing increased water changes? Does anyone have any tips for ensuring you get them down far enough?

06-15-2013 10:07 PM

BarbH

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefStatic

I am going to attempt a 50% water change today. The vac still will not be here for a couple days.

I am going to try to clean the filter, but I wont touch the media.

Speaking of media, I know the bio rings you should never have to replace. I guess according to people on here (not the first I have heard this) the sponge lasts for a long time. How about the carbon bag?

Carbon in my opinion is really not needed when doing a planted tank for everyday use. From what I have seen the carbon can actually take the nutrients out of the water that the plants use. Any carbon that you do have if it was me I would save for if you ever need to add any medication to the tank. The carbon can be used to help remove medication in the water after a treatment has been done. I don't use carbon in my tanks so I am not completely sure how long it last but if I remember right I have seen from about a couple of weeks to a month.

Sent from my SCH-R720 using Tapatalk 2

06-15-2013 07:13 PM

lullafishi

d'oh. At least there are no fish or inverts aside from a few trumpet snails in my tank to suffer from my over-zealousness. I found a few and pushed them deeper (which released a little dust cloud of ferts), but they're Pfertz root tabs and are pretty mushy-crumbled already.

06-15-2013 06:21 PM

crice8

Im currently battling the same issue as some of the beads from inside my rootmedic fert capsules are on the top of my substrate here and there. Only two things you can really do are remove or push them deeper and wait it out

06-15-2013 05:49 PM

lullafishi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diana

Substrate fertilizer tablets are fertilizer, so you are using fertilizer. They may contain nitrogen. Read the label. Do not add more until the nitrate issue is resolved.

Be very careful not to disturb the substrate, the fertilizer tablets might be too close to the surface, or even exposed somewhere. This could very well be the source of the nitrate.

Sorry to threadjack, but I just read this and realized that I made this mistake. I think I put in too many root tabs, and some are quite close to the substrate surface (enough to see crumbled fertilizer debris exposed where the substrate was disturbed).

My tank is still cycling so my nitrates are 40-80ppm. Not sure how much is attributed to cycling and how much to my root tabs (which do contain nitrogen).

Will this affect my cycle and what do you recommend to do?

06-15-2013 05:25 PM

Diana

Quote:

I do not use ferts... I stopped using Flourish Comp... I do use root tabs...

Substrate fertilizer tablets are fertilizer, so you are using fertilizer. They may contain nitrogen. Read the label. Do not add more until the nitrate issue is resolved.

Be very careful not to disturb the substrate, the fertilizer tablets might be too close to the surface, or even exposed somewhere. This could very well be the source of the nitrate.

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.